I think 2009 will be the year of the Hardcore gamer for Wii owners. However I think hardcore gaming is about more than just online multiplayer, hell people were cranking out thousands of hours on Super Mario 64 and Final Fantasy 7 way before online multiplayer came out. In the end though, a console is what you make it. There is enough shovelware trash and kid-friendly games on each console to make them Non-hardcore as well. And there are enough Hardcore titles on Wii to make it Hardcore. It just depends on what you buy. Don't go out and buy Animal Crossing and Wii Play and then come back and B!tch about the Wii not having any hardcore games when you could have just as easily bought Metroid Prime 3, Madworld, No More Heroes, or Zelda.

I don't think the Wii can ever truly become hardcore without some kind of major overhaul. Being a hardcore console isn't just making M rated games or even adding online playability. Hardcore players want things that can make a game truly have a community. Like making clans, playing tournaments, easily chatting with friends or clanmates, etc. etc.

As far as consoles go most of those things only really came to the forefront with the Xbox 360 (Xbox and PS2 had a bit of it but it was rather limited). So did 'hardcore consoles' not exist before then?

Actually they probably didn't officially, as it seems to be quite a new term. In past generations gaming was rather a niche market so all gamers and consoles were likely to be reasonably 'hardcore'.

Most 'hardcore' gamers nowadays do seem to equate M rated games as being hardcore and cartoony games as kiddy; even though a lot of the M rated games are a lot easier than the games of old. So games like Madworld and The Conduit should help push the Wii as a more serious console than it has been perceived by many so far.

Anyway it's all subjective, one persons view of what constitutes 'hardcore' can be quite different from anothers. To me it means games either with some substance and difficulty to them; or gamers who bust through games quickly and need a constant supply of quality titles.

I think 2009 will be the year of the Hardcore gamer for Wii owners. However I think hardcore gaming is about more than just online multiplayer, hell people were cranking out thousands of hours on Super Mario 64 and Final Fantasy 7 way before online multiplayer came out. In the end though, a console is what you make it. There is enough shovelware trash and kid-friendly games on each console to make them Non-hardcore as well. And there are enough Hardcore titles on Wii to make it Hardcore. It just depends on what you buy. Don't go out and buy Animal Crossing and Wii Play and then come back and B!tch about the Wii not having any hardcore games when you could have just as easily bought Metroid Prime 3, Madworld, No More Heroes, or Zelda.

WOW!! AMAZING post!!

has anyone checked out the IGN Wii page today?? Not a single casual game!!

Cursed Mountain looks pretty sick. And I think we could forgive Dead Space Extraction if it's more than IR aiming. Twisting the Remote sounds cool and what if they added MotionPlus where you could bash an enemy's face using your gun!

I think this whole "Hardcore" word is an utter BS. Hardcore games traditionally have been focused on being difficult. With games such as F-Zero GX, Castlevania, and Contra and Shinobi. Now we seem to be replacing the word "Hardcore" with what was formally known as "Mature" games which opposed to "kiddie" or "childish" games. Before the Hardcore redefining, we used the word "Traditional" games which was to distinguish itself from "Casual" games.

I tend to agree with Godwind... Oftentimes, from my perspective, 'hardcore' gamers are no more 'hardcore' than any other gamers. They just focus on M-rated games with violence and sex, etc, but focusing on that doesn't make them any more hardcore. Many of these so-called hardcore gamers only follow trends - going from FPS to FPS to yet another FPS, sometimes throwing in some other mass-marketed triple-A title. 'Hardcore' gaming, though, is represented by the gamers that thoroughly research their games, dedicate time to completing as much of the game as possible, and ultimately enjoy doing so. The Wii, while it has a lot of poorly designed crap titles with shiny covers, also has had a decent amount of 'hardcore' games already. Games like Mercury Meltdown, MLB Power Pros, even SMG - they're all hardcore in that they're well-designed, deep, and have a lot of gameplay life in the form of levels, unlockables, and achievements to attain. In comparison, a lot of so-called 'hardcore' titles don't even offer as much gameplay or additional content; all they do offer is violence/gore/graphics. The difference is that, with the current definition of 'hardcore', people tend to ignore a game's actual quality in favor of 'hardcore' graphics, 'hardcore' violence, 'hardcore' storyline and characters, and so on. In my opinion, games like Halo and Gears of War with their gritty, smooth, and violent gameplay are no more 'hardcore' than Super Mario Galaxy with its family-friendly concept and cartoony graphics, if played as such.

On a slightly different note, IGN has given Editor's Choice awards to four Wii exclusives so far this year, I think. That may not represent an increase in 'hardcore' games, but it does represent good games that serious gamers can appreciate, and I think this is at least on a similar pace with the other consoles..